The Sudden Change
by Riverflower
Summary: Jack leaves without saying anything, and Rudy tells the gang that he moved away. A year later he moves back, but the dojo is missing a student. Kim has changed, and does not talk with the guys. She also joined a certain enemy of Rudy's. Will Jack find out what happened to his friend and crush before it is to late?
1. Chapter 1

**This will be a short chapter, because it kinda starts the story...**

* * *

One year ago Jack left, without telling anybody but Rudy, whom told the dojo. Actually, he didn't even tell Rudy, his grandfather did.

Jerry got sad, and Milton and Eddie shared Jerry's feelings. They would miss Jack, and badly. Who could defend the...unusual trio?

Rudy also felt sad, but he found comfort with Thoutsee **(not sure how to spell it, but it's Phil's goat...) **and therefor managed to move on from his best student.

Kim however, she was crushed. That was the first bad news in a line of many, because her whole life was about to take an unexpected and unpleasant turn.

The minute she heard about this she stormed home, not caring about what her mother thought when she ran upstairs. She sobbed into her pillow all night, not caring about eating.

Kimberly Crawford never cryes, now she did.

She didn't go to school that week, and faked being sick, even though her mother would have let her stayed home anyway.

Her heart broke, especially because the news came from Rudy, and not Jack himself.

The reason Jack didn't tell his friend was simple, and understandable. Still he regretted what he had done, he wished he had told them himself.

It just hurt to much.

Three of them would just hurt, but one of them...

...it would have killed him.

* * *

A year later Jack returns, and now he is standing in front of the dojo. The students - his friends - stood inside, sparring.

Jerry looked taller, and more muscular. He fighted better, too. He even had a new belt!

Milton hadn't grown much, and was still the skinny boy in the dojo.

Eddie looked like himself to, only he had gained a little height.

**Jack POV**

My whole body was exited, because I was about to reunite with my beloved friends. I couldn't wait to walk through those doors, telling them I'm here to stay.

My mother had promised that we would stay in San Jose and never move again. I remembered how I had hugged her tightly, thanking her over and over again.

Through the windows I saw a familiar skinny boy, a dark skinned boy eating falafels, and a black haired one. I also saw my sensei, polishing one of the trophies I once won.

But the blonde missed, she wasn't there.

Usually, she would be sparring with Jerry - since he was the strongest of the three boys - and beating the crap out of him.

Milton was there instead of her, taking her place, something that made me feel uneasy.

I finally walked through the doors, and was sent to the ground when four people tackled me into a hug.

Usually these guys - ecpetially Jerry - never hugs other guys, but I guess til was a special occasion. I mean, we haven't seem each other for a whole year!

"Guys! Let me breathe!" I laughed. Finally I got up to my feet, grinning at my friends. I had missed them so much, it was almost unbearable.

"Jack!" Jerry almost screamed, but realizing how girlish it sounded, he cleared his voice and used a deeper 'manly' tone. "Whazzup Jack?"

I just laughed along with the rest of the guys.

How good it was to be here again, it just felt...right!

I had kept in contact with the four in front of me, I just couldn't manage to shut them completely out of my life. Still, phonecalls and videochats just wasn't enough.

You can't possibly imagine my joy right now.

We all smiled, and started talking.

"So Milton, how is things with Julie?" I asked.

The redhead grinned at me, apperantly proud. He started talking nonstop about every second I had missed. I smiled, glad that he was happy.

Eddie told me a lot about how school was, about a couple new teachers and stuff. He also had an eye to this new girl, Stefanie.

Rudy had won some new trophies, and showed me them, a proud look in his eyes. He told me in exact detail how he had won them, making my grin grow bigger.

Jerry showed my some new amazing dancemoves, and talked abut how well stuff was going with him and Grace.

When I heard the name 'Grace' it reminded me of someone.

"Where is Kim?" I asked casually, trying to hide my longing.

I had probably missed her the most, something about her was special. She wasn't like everybody else, she was different. Only the thought of her made me smile, and I felt blood rush in my cheeks.

I usually don't blush, but I can't blame my suddenly red cheeks on the cold, because it was pretty hot in the dojo.

Suddenly, the happy faces were replaced with sad ones. They all seemed in pain, or loss. I grew worried, and feared my answer.

What had happened to her? Was she in the hospital?

I felt a sudden wave of worry hit my body, and my expression grew concerned. If something had happened to her, I would rip the one with the blame into pieces.

Rudy was the first to answer. "Not here."

I got a bit annoyed. That wasn't the answer I was going for, not at all.

"Jack," Milton begun, but hesitated a few second. "She has...changed."

Changed? How? New hair color? Glasses? New style?

Apparently Jerry read my expression. "She doesn't speak to us anymore."

"Or train here," Eddie added.

What? Why didn't she train here? She loved this place, even with its useless equipment, and moldy mats...

"Jack, she has joined the Black Dragons..."

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**Oh no! Review please, it will make my day a good one :) More up soon!**

**Love, Riverflower.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry for late update, but I have been sick for a while now... It's short this chapter, but it's supposed to be, sadly... (because if it wasn't, the next chapter would hardly be two sentences...)**

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Kim joined the Black Dragons? Why would she do such a thing? What on earth was she thinking? Was she blackmailed? No, nobody could manage to blackmail Kim Crawford.

But then again, Kim Crawford would never, ever join the Black Dragons.

She hated them, hated what they did. They basically brainwashed kids into believing that violence was a good thing, something to use for fun, not as protection.

Karate was for your and your friends protection, not to use to hurt innocent people.

I myself had never used it for fun, only when someone needed help, and others were being violent to them.

"Why?" I asked, mastering my confusion, masking it as concern. Well, it wasn't a complete lie, I was terribly concerned too.

The others looked uncomfortable and sad, and I guess this was a quite touchy subject. But right now I didn't care at all, I needed to know.

Kim was always my best friend. She always knew what to say, and sometimes she didn't have to say anything at all. She could read me like an open book, even though I was a master in hiding my emotions. Not for her though, she knew what I felt, whenever I felt it.

I have to admit I had started to develop a crush on her, and that's the only thing I managed to hide from her. The only thing I never told her, the only thing I kept secret. Sadly, I had to move away, and never got a chance to tell her. I had convinced myself to tell her when I came back, but now she was gone. The fire of hope had been blown out, and I couldn't manage to make a new one.

She was gone from my life.

"We are not sure..." Jerry begun, but stopped.

"Well, you are never really sure, but let me explain," Milton said. "She was all fine and happy one day, and looked like herself. Then she was gone for a week, I guess she was sick. After that she changed, and ignored us."

"How?" I asked, even though it was a incredibly stupid question.

"Well, she ignored us...?" Milton answered, but it sounded more like a question.

"Yeah. I asked her if she was going to practice later on, but she said 'not even if you paid me, loser' and laughed with her new friends."

When Eddie told me that, I saw a single tear make its way down his cheek.

This didn't sound like Kim...

"Her new friends?"

Suddenly, even Jerry looked disgusted. And since I guess her new friends are girls, that was kind of odd.

"Donna, Kate and Haley," was the answer I got, to my big surprise.

Those girls... She hated them! How could they be her new friends? She never liker them, thought they were evil. She often told me how she was teased by them, and humiliated. They had always been so mean to her, and even I didn't like them. For some odd reason they were still popular, and the guys at school often drooled over them.

What had happened to my best friend?

* * *

I walked to school the next day. I had a lot on my mind, and little time to think trough it. I wondered what had happened to Kim, why she had changed like this. Was it because of me? Had I done this to her because I leaved? Was it my fault?

I walked up to her house, pressing her doorbell. Even though she had changed, I wanted to see it with my own eyes. We used to walk to school together, so I was going to ask her to do that today.

I waited for half a minute before anybody answered, and almost left thinking that she had already started to walk to school. Luckily the door opened, but Kim was not the one standing in front of my shocked figure.

An old man, probably in his seventies stood in the door, waiting for me to speak. I knew it was not anybody from Kim's family, because she just had her mother. Her father had moved away a long time ago on some buisness trip and Kim hadn't heard from him ever since. Nobody really knew what happened to him.

"Yes?" the man asked impatiently.

"Eh, is Kim here?" I asked awkwardly, scratching the back of my neck. I already new the answer, but I couldn't understand it.

"Who's she?" the man sighted, annoyed.

I was stunned, even though I knew this was bound to happen ever since I saw the new man. He had just confirmed my fears.

Kim didn't live there anymore, she had moved away.

I tried to explain, even though I knew it sounded stupid. "I moved away a year ago, and my friend Kim lived in this house. Do you know what happened?"

Yeah, I was getting on this mans nerves, but I had to know. What had happened to Kim, and her life? She had been so happy, and now everything had changed. Why?

"Oh, that," the man said, looking unhappy. Suddenly his eyes were filled with sadness, and tears. I didn't know why, and I don't think I would want to know it either.

I waited for an answer, but the man didn't speak. It looked like he was focusing in the nothingness beside him, looking for something. I wondered if he had forgotten both me and my question, and was about to ask. Luckily his gaze turned to me again, and he opended his mouth to tell what had happened. "Well..."

"Well what?" I asked when he stopped, and started to look at the nothingness again.

"You see, the two that lived here, the mom and the daughter, we're both in a terrible car accedent. The young one survived, but the mother sadly didn't..."

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**That is it for now guys! Thanks for all the wonderful reviews. Each one makes me incredibly happy. Hadn't it been for the nice reviews, I would've updated even later. So, more reviews = update sooner. Please review!**

**By the way, if I have any Harry Potter fans amongst my viewers, please look at my other story "The Vanished Ones". It's about a mysterious girl that showed up in Harry's forth year, and students that start disappearing, including a good friend of Harry.**

**Love, Riverflower.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here is some more to my lovely readers. Thank you for all the rewievs!**

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Kims mom died? She died? Mrs. Crawford's gone?

That seemed like an impossible thing, it just could not have happened. She had been such a nice woman, and I had talked to her a lot. I even think she knew about my crush on her daughter, because she was great at reading people's faces too. She had always been so kind, so loving. She didn't deserve to die like that, she didn't deserve to die at all.

Kim didn't deserve this either, not at all.

If she didn't live here where did she have her house? Who did she share it with? She didn't have any family except her mother, and now she was gone. She had her father, but everybody assumed he was dead, so she couldn't really live with him.

Maybe she moved away too. Today was the first day of school, so maybe she moved away during the summer vacation. The guys said they hadn't seen her since school ended, and Jerry even asked Grace. She hadn't seen her either, something that was weird.

None of them had mentioned Kim's mother's death, so it could have happened during the holidays.

"When did this happen?" I asked the man, now on the edge if crying. I usually don't cry, but this was just plain terrible.

"I don't know the exact date, sadly. I moved in a couple of weeks after the death, and that was about ten months ago, so I guess...eleven or twelve months?"

That is almost a year! This happened right after I left, right after I took the plane away from here. This happened after she got the news about me moving, almost scaringly close after.

She had been seen at school since that though, so she had to live in the area. At least she hadn't moved across the world. I have to admit I was afraid she had, because she was quite unpredictable.

One thing that bothered me a lot, was the fact that she had started to act weird around the same time as her mothers death. Did it have something to do with that, or was it something else that had made her change so suddenly?

Was it because if me?

I felt terrible. I felt like a monster for letting her suffer alone, with only Grace's hand to hold. She had incrediby many friends, but only a few of them she allowed to see her cry.

I was one of them, and I left her. I just left her standing alone.

"Do you know where the daughter is now?" I asked, hoping he would know.

He didn't.

I thanked him for the help, and walked out from the property that once had belonged to Kim and her mother, but that now was owned by an old man in his seventies.

I kicked a little rock in frustration, sending it a long way ahead of me. I felt so bad for Kim, the tough Kim I always knew and trusted. She was my best friend, and I left her to stand alone.

I was maybe to blame for Kim's sadness, or at least parts of it.

That though ate me alive.

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**Kims POV:**

I walked down the hallway of my school. Every step caused me pain, every faked smile made me hurt. My whole body was aching, and not because of the series of kicks and punches thrown my way last night, at the karate practise. At least, not only that.

I didn't like my life anymore. With my beloved mom gone, and my best friend... I didn't have anything to look forward too, not a single thing at all.

Everybody hated me now.

I walked over to Donna, knowing she would have a lot of insults to toss at me, just like everybody else. She was the meanest girl at school, accompanied by the stupidest girls I've ever seen, but also they were complete jerks to me.

Even Frank and his gang bullied me. Frank didn't punch as hard as the others, but still, it hurt badly. I used to defend my self, but if I tried that now it went out in my friends.

Well, they weren't my friends anymore. They think I ditched them for the popular kids, but I never did by own will. I was forced, and I did it for their security. They couldn't win a fight with all the Black Dragons, even with Rudy on their side. They weren't many enough.

Grace was the only one I had told, told everything. She had promised she would never tell, but she told me that she would soon if it got any worse.

I'm not sure if that was possible. I think it was at its worst the last year, but then again, things had started to get even uglier than when it started, so...

Grace was really supportive, and had helped me a lot. She covered up for me, because many students wondered why I often came with a black eye, or a cut lip to school.

We had told them that it was a training accident. They believed that I worked really hard in martial arts, and that caused a lot of accidents to happen.

Honestly, I've not been aloud to work on karate anymore. I'm just the punching bag.

Sadly, the 'accidents' were not the real reason I came beaten up to school. The real reason is to painful to even think of, and it's been going on for a year. It started when Jack left, and then my mom died, and then...

"Carry my bags, now!" Donna snapped, tossing her three school bags to me. I don't think it's a huge surprise that none of them actually had school supplies in them. One was filled with make up, one with expensive clothing, and one with creams, different curling irons, and other weird stuff for her hair.

When the school bags hit my bruised arms I winced in pain, and dropped them by accident. I quickly collected them, hoping Donna didn't see it, but she already had.

"I'll tell dad, and make sure you have a really _great_ practise today," she hissed at me, sarcasm dripping from every word.

"Please, don't," I pleaded, but I knew she would anyways. She hated me, her dad hated me...

...the world hated me.

I had always been the tough one, the one that laughs at danger, but not anymore. Ever since my mothers death and Jacks sudden moving I had became weak, but not because I gave up. I tried to hold on for a few weeks, but the pain took over. The physical and mental pain combined is not fun at all, it's like a experiencing death while still being alive.

I gave up. I gave up on everything, absolutely everything.

* * *

**Jacks POV:**

I walked down the hallway, and was greeted by a cheer from the students. I didn't know I was that missed, and it was quite funny, because I didn't know half of the cheering students names...

I saw a blond familar figure standing by her locker, carrying many bags. My heart skipped a beat, I swear. I had waited so long to see her, and now I was standing ten feet from her.

I ran up to her, at least expecting a smile. I knew everybody said she had changed, but I couldn't believe it until I saw it with my own pair of eyes.

"Kim!" I called after her, and she turned in shock.

She didn't smile though, she looked scared. She hastily picked up the bags and started to quickly walk away.

What is going on?

I grapped her arm, trying to stop her. Surprisingly she winced in pain as I touched her arm. It looked like I really hurt her by grabbing her.

I pulled up her sleeve carefully, gasping when I saw her arm. It was full of bruises in every color. Green, blue, black, yellow...

I looked up on her face, again shocked by the sight.

She had a black eye, a small bruise in her cheek, and a cut lip with a little dried blood on it.

Someone had been beating her, someone had been harming her! Who would do such a thing to her, who?

I'm going to kill the one who did it...

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**Don't worry, Jack will not become a murderer. **

**Please review. Many rewievs = faster update!**

**Love, Riverflower.**


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